There's definitely demand, and you should be able to get decent wedge if you're any good at it. The reason why there's a race to the bottom on freelance sites is precisely because there's demand: a large number of people who are just in it for the money, rather than a love of programming, choose java because it's popular.
To get your day rate up, though, you're going to have to build up your own network, so that you're not competing against everyone else on the freelance sites. Check out Brennan Dunn's books/blog/email list. [1][2]
If you're good and get the right connections, you should be able to get up towards that $100/hr mark. To get beyond that, you really need to be able to point to a bank account and say, "because of me, there's more money there." See patio11 [3]. At that point, language is far less relevant - and in fact, I'd hazard a guess that Java is a particularly difficult language to do that with (because it tends to be more backend rather than front-end, but that's an unsubstantiated gut feel.)
Nice examples of traction! How'd you land the Nike deal? Any money change hands? To make decent suggestions about where you should focus, we'd need to understand your motivations. What are your aims? Which is more likely to get you there? (Also, if your aims are making heaps cash -either directly or by selling- keep in mind that both apps and social networks are tough to build businesses around.)
Nothing new. I didn't know Emphasis, and I used these few lines of code in various projects, so I decided to take 10min to write a jQuery plugin. It is unit tested at least..
Really, who cares? It's on pirate bay, it's been downloaded 100,000 times: if you want it, it's out there. "Liberty" has already been achieved! Hooray!
Sure, the files are out - no going back there - but the defcad.org people are still subject to interference and possible legal issues, so they would probably still appreciate any support.
I have a bookmark folder "to read" which would be better named "I don't really care about this". The best system I found was similar, but just suited my habits better: if I find an article I wanted to read but not right then, I send it to my kindle using the browser plugin, and spend an hour each evening reading through things.
Wow, that's impressive - often I struggle to recall the details of what I've read - setting a written product of an objective would be useful. This must take a lot of discipline... how long did it take you to establish this habit?
I've not quite had this experience, but similar, and agree - if you've got what they want, then they'll be happy to receive your call. (As long as you're polite about it!)
Agree that tech is myopic... or perhaps it's just a segment of tech - there are a lot of tech people working happily for those large PS firms you mention.
